How to Use an Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Tab

How to Use an Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Tab

Using an acoustic guitar fingerstyle tab is the short and easy way to play the guitar. It’s sufficient to help you master the basics and gradually move on to studying the more advanced techniques for guitar playing.

The Basics of Finger Picking

Before you can read and play any acoustic guitar fingerstyle tab, you need to learn how to fingerpick first. Acoustic guitar playing is mostly used for playing classical, traditional, and flamenco music. People also like to use it for playing ballads. The standard rules for finger picking will always apply, however, regardless of the genre of music you’re interested in.

Nails or Fingers?

Some guitarists prefer to grow their nails long and use them for plucking strings. Whether you prefer to use your nails or fingers is fine as long as you choose something that you’re most comfortable with using.

PIMA

This is the foundation of guitar finger picking and you’ll see it used in most – if not all – guitar tabs.

P stands for your THUMB.

I stands for your INDEX finger.

M stands for your MIDDLE finger.

A stands for your RING finger.

Now, you will use your P finger (thumb) to play the fourth, fifth, and sixth notes (D, A, and E). The middle finger plays the B note, the I finger is used for the G note, and the A finger is used for playing the E note.

Don’t be in a hurry learning this style. A strong foundation is the key to developing proficiency. You need to know this system by heart in order to play any music using your acoustic guitar.

Charts and Patterns

It is also greatly advisable that you have the necessary chord charts and fingering patterns right next to your sheet music. This will ensure that you don’t inadvertently get used to the wrong finger patterns or use the wrong combination of notes when playing a particular chord.

Where to Find a Free Acoustic Guitar Fignerstyle Tab for Practice

The Internet is a good place to find free guitar tabs for fingerstyle play, but the tabs you get to download aren’t completely guaranteed to be free from error as well.

Tablature Websites

These websites generally offer a wide selection of free guitar tabs. Some of them may have been written by pro guitarists while others may be contributed by well-meaning but non-pro users.

Tablature Listings

These are search engines specifically designed to help with your queries and give you a list of sites that are most likely to have the tabs you’re looking for.